With the advent of increasingly sophisticated telecommunication services, various systems have been created which allow “tandeming” of an incoming call leg to an application node. Such tandeming is utilized to implement various advanced services, especially in mobile or other wireless environments, such as calling party pays services, prepaid services, and one number services. For calling party pays services, an application node generates billing and other information, for telecommunication services to be billed to the calling (or “A”) party, rather than being billed to the called party. For prepaid services, the subscriber (called or “B” party) has prepaid for particular types of services, such as having paid in advance for an amount of communication time for wireless communication services. For one number services, the application typically sequentially alerts various telephones of the subscriber, such as first alerting a home (wireline) telephone, and if unanswered, sequentially alerting a mobile telephone, followed by alerting a paging device.
To provide such services, an incoming call leg for a subscriber directory number (as a called party directory number) is typically tandemed by a network switch to an application node within the telecommunications network. In such tandeming, a call leg which is incoming to a network switch on a predetermined trunk group is routed to an application node, rather than directly delivered to the subscriber. Following performance of the particular application, such as determining that the subscriber has sufficiently prepaid his or her account to support another incoming call, the incoming call leg is then routed back to the network switch, for subsequent delivery or routing to the subscriber.
In the prior art, such tandeming is performed both on a group basis and on an all-or-none basis. For example, for certain groups of subscribers, typically designated by trunk groups, incoming call legs are automatically tandemed to an application node, while for other groups of subscribers, also typically designated by trunk groups, incoming call legs are never tandemed, with all incoming call legs always directly routed to the subscriber.
In addition, in the prior art, if the tandeming is unsuccessful, no provision is made for call delivery to or other services for the subscriber. Instead, the prior art systems typically provide only a reorder (fast busy) announcement to the calling party, who must then redial the call. Such lack of call delivery unnecessarily uses network resources, and unnecessarily loses potential revenue for these undelivered, tandemed calls.
As a consequence, a need remains to provide for message-based intelligent tandeming, where incoming calls may be tandemed or not tandemed to an application node on an individual basis, rather than a group basis. Such tandeming should also provide for a configurable default mode, to avoid unnecessary use of network resources and to avoid a potential loss of revenue. Such tandeming should also be cost effective, capable of implementation in existing telecommunication systems, and should be user friendly and user transparent. In addition, such tandeming should be dynamic and responsive to changing environmental and user conditions which may arise in wireless or wireline communication systems.